CLEVELAND — The 2008 Indians may be playing poorly, or in one of their unusual hot streaks. It doesn’t seem to have any effect on Cliff Lee. He just keeps mowing the opposition down.

On Friday, Lee posted yet another in a long list of gems. He allowed two runs in eight innings while striking out 10. He received a huge assist from Rafael Perez, who got out of a ninth-inning situation with the tying run on second and no outs, in a 5-4 victory against visiting Minnesota.

“Cliff was outstanding again,” manager Eric Wedge said. “He was effective; he made pitches. He was throwing the ball downhill. He had his breaking ball going, and he mixed in some sliders.

“He’s been very consistent. He’s been pitching with a great deal of confidence, and that’s taken him a long way.”

The offense backed Lee by hitting Livan Hernandez hard early. Cleveland (45-56) put up four runs in the first inning and added another in the second on a Franklin Gutierrez homer. That was enough for Lee, who did give up a pair of two-out RBI knocks, but no other runs.

Lee is now 14-2 with a 2.29 ERA, and leads the majors in wins. He allowed six hits and no walks. Eighty of his 108 pitches were good for strikes.

“I was pretty effective,” Lee said. “(I was) throwing strikes — working ahead in the count for the most part, and when you do that, they’ve got to swing the bats.”

Masa Kobayashi came on to start the ninth, but yielded a two-run homer to Justin Morneau and then a double to Delmon Young with no outs. However, with Perez on the mound, first baseman Ryan Garko made a diving catch of pinch-hitter Mike Redmond’s line drive. Perez (first save) then got Brendan Harris to bounce back to the mound. Young then stole third without a throw. Nick Punto followed by hitting the ball between Perez’s legs, but second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera, who had entered as an injury replacement for Jamey Carroll one inning earlier, ranged to his right, fielded the ball behind second on two hops and threw to first to retire Punto.

Perez, who said that he had been in that situation only in his native Dominican Republic, felt best for Lee, then the team, and then himself.

Perez spoke through coach Luis Rivera, who acted as interpreter.

“I was very calm on the mound (in that situation),” Perez said. “No matter what the situation, I’m going to be ready to pitch.”

“(Perez) did a great job,” Wedge said. “It’s one of those situations we talked about. With these young kids, (one of them) might have an opportunity. Obviously he did an outstanding job.”

The Twins, who lost their fifth straight, are now 55-47. Cleveland has won eight of its last 11.

Grady Sizemore opened the first with a single to right, and Carroll singled up the middle to move him to second.

Ben Francisco then drove the ball to the left-center field wall, where center fielder Carlos Gomez made a spectacular leaping catch just before slamming into the wall.